03 Jan Top stocks to watch on Wednesday
Here are Wednesday’s biggest calls on Wall Street: Goldman Sachs reiterates Tesla as neutral Goldman raised its price target on the stock to $255 per share from $235 and said it’s sticking with its equal weight rating. “We are Neutral rated on the stock, with our positive view of Tesla’ s long-term growth potential and position in the market offset by what we believe will be additional pricing reductions and full valuation.” Goldman Sachs upgrades Ameriprise Financial to buy from neutral Goldman said it likes the company’s cash revenue outlook. ” AMP : Durable cash revenue outlook, margins and buybacks support EPS upside; upgrade to Buy.” Goldman Sachs downgrades Charles Schwab to neutral from buy Goldman said the Schwab bull case is moving further away. “SCHW: Lower rates push EPS recovery bull case further out; downgrade to Neutral.” JPMorgan downgrades Prudential to neutral from overweight JPMorgan said it sees “less buyback accretion” in 2024 for Prudential. “healthy equity market, offset by lower interest rates, less buyback accretion, and charge in 4Q23.” Morgan Stanley downgrades Keurig Dr Pepper to equal weight from overweight Morgan Stanley said “EPS visibility is already priced in.” “Part one of our early-July KDP upgrade has played out with the market now viewing EPS visibility as solid at KDP in our minds, or perhaps at least much better than pronounced fears over a FY23 EPS cut back in early July.” Baird initiates Jazz Pharmaceuticals as outperform Baird said it likes the pharmaceutical company’s pipeline. “We’re initiating coverage of JAZZ with an Outperform rating and $160 price target.” Goldman Sachs downgrades Magna to neutral from buy Goldman said it sees “limited” EPS improvement for the auto parts manufacturer. “We downgrade Magna (MGA) shares to Neutral from Buy as we believe the company’s relatively slower content per vehicle growth compared to our broader tier 1 coverage will limit EPS/FCF improvement especially as auto production growth moderates.” Goldman Sachs reiterates Apple as buy Goldman said it’s standing by its buy rating on the stock. ” Apple (AAPL, Buy) should also benefit from a recovery in industry PC demand, as well as a track record of share gains.” KeyBanc upgrades Verizon to overweight from sector weight Key said it’s bullish on Verizon in 2024. “Our view is based off of: 1) Wireless industry competitive intensity being low, which makes us want more Wireless exposure, and VZ should show better postpaid phone net add performance; 2) VZ’s Broadband subscriber growth is far outpacing T’s.” KBW downgrading SoFi to underperform from market perform KBW downgraded the stock mainly on valuation. “We are moving our rating on SOFI to Underperform (from MP) due to a combination of recent outperformance but also a re-underwriting of our model, which slightly reduced estimates, leaving us materially below consensus.” Roth MKM names Roblox a top pick Roth said the stock is a top pick in 2024. “In our view, 2024 marks the start of a three-year period where Roblox can achieve a ~20% bookings CAGR along with 100bps-300bps of annual adjusted EBITDA margin expansion.” Bank of America reiterates Amazon as buy Bank of America said it sees “margin upside” for Amazon in 2024. “2024 should be a solid year for Amazon advertising.” Piper Sandler upgrades Discover to overweight from neutral Piper said it sees tailwinds for the stock in 2024. “We are upgrading DFS to Overweight from Neutral while naming DFS as our top pick for 2024.” Baird downgrades Sherwin-Williams to neutral from outperform Baird said in its downgrade of the paint company that the thesis has played out. “However, we believe that SHW faces a challenging macroeconomic backdrop in the near term, characterized by higher for longer interest rates, a tightening housing supply, and higher oil prices/wage inflation.” Wolfe names JPMorgan a top pick Wolfe said the bank has “asset sensitive ‘quality’ on sale.” “Our Top Picks screen best across multiple scenarios in terms of risk-reward, with a combination of asset sensitive ‘quality’ on sale ( JPM , ARES, LPLA) and undervalued cyclical names.” Wolfe upgrades Citi to outperform from peer perform Wolfe said the bank has an “attractive risk/reward.” “C bull case does not require meeting revenue growth targets — we see compelling risk-reward from self-help.” Mizuho names First Solar a top pick Mizuho said it sees earnings resilience from the solar company in 2024. “We prefer First Solar as earnings should be resilient with locked in volumes and ASPs, and they are sold out through 2026 with mostly take-or-pay contracts.” DA Davidson initiates Nvidia as neutral DA said Nvidia could be “vulnerable” to AI hype. “While we continue to believe that generative AI is the most important transformative technology since the Internet, we do not expect the same level of investment we saw in 2023 continuing beyond 2024 and initiate coverage at a NEUTRAL rating.” Goldman Sachs initiates Li Auto as buy Goldman initiated the China EV company with a buy and says it likes Li’s “competitive positioning.” “Expansion into BEV [battery electric vehicle] drives another leg of growth; initiate at Buy.” UBS upgrades Rockwell Automation to buy from neutral UBS said it sees “reshoring momentum” for the stock. “We upgrade ROK to Buy as shares of the US Automation leader have de-rated to a 5yr low into the early innings of US Reshoring momentum, a multi-decade opportunity that should accelerate ROK’s long-term growth algorithm.” Citi opens a positive catalyst watch on United Airlines Citi said the stock has “momentum” in 2024. ” United’s 2024 momentum seems underappreciated by the market. The carrier’s strong revenue momentum on the Trans-Pacific- and on mainline domestic corridors, along with seat mile cost dilution associated with re-fleeting, seem underappreciated by the market.” Jefferies upgrades GSK to buy from hold Jefferies said it sees an attractive risk/reward for the biopharma company. “Novartis is still top-pick, then GSK which we upgrade to Buy on near-term risk-reward, and Sanofi’s robust growth remains underappreciated.” UBS names Netflix and Disney top ideas UBS said it’s bullish on both stocks in 2024. “We believe Netflix is the main beneficiary of these trends while we see a positive risk/reward for Disney given its asset value, potential strategic developments and accelerating OI/EPS growth.” Needham initiates Utz as buy Needham said the snack company is firing on all cylinders. “We believe Utz has the right playbook and new team in place to transition from a family-run regional company to a national competitor in the salty snack category.” Mizuho downgrades Exxon to hold from buy Mizuho said in its downgrade of Exxon that it’s concerned about a “weakening” macro. “On the downside, weakening macro outlook will impact its Downstream operations more than IOC [integrated oil companies] peers and could be a headwind.” Barclays upgrades Yum Brands to overweight from equal weight and downgrades Wendy’s to equal weight from overweight Barclays made several ratings changes in its restaurant coverage and said it likes stocks that have a “larger, global, more diversified portfolio.” “And in that scenario, we are making two rating changes within quick service to be best positioned, shifting preference to a larger, global, more diversified portfolio. Specifically, we are upgrading YUM to OW and downgrading WEN to EW. Barclays initiates Teladoc as overweight Barclays said in its initiation of the telehealth company that shares are attractively valued. “We see an opportunity in TDOC given its near-trough valuation at a discount to even services peers a newfound focus on profitability, balance sheet flexibility, and an embedded platform that lends itself to cross-sales.” Wells Fargo names Micron as a top pick Wells said Micron is its new top pick for 2024. “We’re positive on the fundamental semi setup in 2024/2025; cyclical recovery + LT [long term] secular thesis in memory drives MU to top pick & prefer NVDA vs. AMD at current levels/sentiment.” Bank of America downgrades Bristol-Myers to neutral from buy Bank of America said it needs more clarity on execution for Bristol-Myers. “Our Neutral rating is driven by the uncertainty on long-term growth profile of the company given LOE [loss of exclusivity] headwinds despite recent acquisitions.” BTIG initiates VinFast as buy BTIG said the EV company is well-positioned for expansion into North America. ” VinFast is a Vietnam-based passenger electric vehicle (EV) OEM looking to expand into North America (NAM) with longer-term expansion plans into Europe and Asia.” Piper Sandler names Ulta a top pick Piper said the stock is well positioned for a tough macro in 2024. ” ULTA is navigating well through a challenging consumer environment and proving to be one of the most defensive names in beauty, delivering consistent positive comp sales and margins several points ahead of pre-Covid.” Bank of America names Eli Lilly a top pick Bank of America said the pharmaceutical stock is a top pick in 2024. “LLY shares had another strong year, finishing up 59% in 2023 largely based on broad investor interest surrounding obesity / diabetes drugs. Given the outperformance as well as the multiple investors are not surprisingly concerned about how sustainable current trends are.”